Welcome to Hollycroft Park

History of the Park

Since its beginnings in the 1930’s Hollycroft park has been a favourite to Hinckley’s residents and still provides events as it has done for many decades.

Although the parkland was only brought in 1930, archaeological finds in the vicinity of the park suggest human habitation from around 5000 years ago (Flint and animal bones can now be displayed in Hinckley and district museum).

Following these early beginnings the land eventually became farmland and ended up in the ownership of the Thomas Atkins trust, it was from this trust that the council purchased the land and turned it into the park we know today.

Park Beginnings

In 1930, the Hinckley Urban District Council purchased a piece of land from the Thomas Atkins Trust. The surveyor of the Council was instructed by the Estates and Parks Committee to produce plans for a public park to cater for the recreational and sporting needs of the people of Hinckley.

The architect for the park was Thomas F.Shute who designed both holly Croft Park and the rock gardens. Stephanie Charlesworth, his granddaughter, still lives in Hinckley today.

The design for Hollycroft Park was based on the happy Valley Park in North Wales, which was created in the late 19th Century, and listed as a historic garden of excellence in the 1930s. The name Hollycroft comes from the old English, “Hollow Craeft”, the name of the field at the bottom of the hill (Craeft meaning a ‘trade’ or ‘handicraft’). This could be linked to the reed beds in this field used for thatching buildings in Hinckley.